Designers to Lecture on Intersection of Art, Design, and Technology May 17 at WWU

Designers Amber Frid-Jimenez and Joe Dahmen, who collaborate under the name "AFJD," will lecture at WWU on Tuesday, May 17 at 5 p.m. in Academic Instructional Center West, room 204.

The lecture is presented by the Dell and Rosalie King Design Lecture series and is free and open to the public. Free parking is available after 4:30 p.m. in the C Lots just south of Academic Instructional Center West.

Dahmen and Frid-Jimenez will present recent architectural installations exploring softness in relation to their upcoming installation in the Primary Research Lab in the Western Gallery. Soft systems respond to non-linear processes whose complexity derives from the shifting interrelationships between elements. The move toward soft methodologies represents a significant shift in the way architecture exchanges information with its surroundings.

This talk will look at the effects of tactile and operational softness on the experience of architectural space through the lens of recent public space installations using mycelium biocomposites and recycled materials. AFJD uses material exploration to provoke fundamental questions about our relationship to architecture.  

AFJD projects include seating made of mushrooms and sawdust grown in fabricated molds, producing unique sustainable materials; and “Pop Rocks,” which deployed large pillow-like forms, made from post-industrial waste, across a city block of Vancouver, B.C. The forms offered the public a place to rest during the installation, and the re-used materials were recycled at the end of the project.

Frid-Jimenez is an artist and designer who works at the intersection of art, design and technology. She has taught design studios and seminars at the Rhode Island School of Design, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Visual Arts Program, at the National Arts Academy (KHiB) in Bergen, Norway and most recently, Emily Carr University, Vancouver, where she is Canada Research Chair in art and design technology. She holds a master’s degree in Media Arts and Sciences from the MIT Media Lab where she studied with John Maeda.

Dahmen trained as an architect at MIT and is an expert on sustainable building technology. He is an assistant professor of Design and Sustainability Integration at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, where he teaches design studios and building technology courses. He is also a faculty associate of the Peter Wall Institute. He has a master’s degree in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked with Yung Ho Chang and 2008 MacArthur Fellow John Ochsendorf.

For more information on this event, contact Chris Casquilho, Western Washington University’s College of Fine and Performing Arts manager of Marketing and Special Events at (360) 650-2829, or chris.casquilho@wwu.edu.